EUGENE – The Colorado Buffaloes had a chance to be in first place by the end of Thursday night, but that opportunity has gone by the wayside. CU was defeated, 76-56 at the hands of the Pac-12 leading Oregon Ducks.

Quickly the Ducks got ahead 24-7 just 12 minutes into the game, CU would never got back to within seven points the rest of the night. The first half was extremely rough for the Buffs as they shot 31% from the field while committing eight turnovers. Oregon capitalized by scoring 11 points off of turnovers before the break.

It was all but over at half when Oregon was up 40-21, Colorado never cut it to single digits after the break. The Ducks led for 36:50 minutes and they were superior in every stat except for rebounding where CU was plus four.

“The kinds of turnovers we had, they were just lazy passing, bad footwork, just ridiculous turnovers,” Boyle said of Colorado’s sloppy offensive play. “This time of the year, I know we’re not going to have zero. You cut those numbers in half, and you’re right in the ballgame.”

There really isn’t much to say about this game other than it was a very frustrating game for Colorado. They started off the night with a chance to really do some damage, they ended the night damaged.

“We didn’t play well enough offensively,” Boyle stated. “We didn’t play well enough defensively, we didn’t shoot free throws well enough. I know we out-rebounded them by six. The rebounding margin was good, but they had nine offensive rebounds. That’s too many for a team like Oregon, who has guys around the perimeter. It’s not like they’re jamming the ball inside, they just crash the boards and we don’t box them out. Great opportunity lost, and it’s very disappointing.”

PLAYER OF THE GAME

Elgin Cook

In 35 minutes Cook had 18 points on 7-of-16 shooting with six rebounds, two assists and two steals. The Redshirt senior forward led the Ducks in points and was second only to Chris Boucher in rebounds.

QUOTE OF THE GAME

Head Coach Tad Boyle

“Going into this game, there were two points of emphasis to beat the Oregon Ducks. One was to take care of the ball, and the other was to limit them to one shot. They had 33 points in those two categories. They had 21 points off our turnovers and 12 second-chance points, and we lost by 20. Those are things that we can control. We can box out. We can take care of the ball. We get four points off our turnovers, they get 21 off ours, that’s the ballgame. We knew it coming in, so it’s not like it’s a revelation.”

BY THE NUMBERS

1 – The Number of free throws the Buffs shot in the first half

14 – The number of turnovers CU had

42.9 – Colorado’s free throw percentage over the course of the game.

WHAT’S NEXT

Colorado heads to Corvallis to play the Beavers on Saturday, Tad Boyle stressed the importance of the conclusion of this road trip after Thursday night’s loss.

“It’s a big game,” Boyle told. “Every game is a big game down the stretch. Tonight was a big game. Tonight was the biggest game we had all year and we laid an egg. That’s disappointing. We’ve got to bounce back, we’ve got to be resilient. I love this team. This is a great group of guys to coach, and we were not good enough tonight on a big stage, the biggest game of the year, we laid an egg. For that, we’ve got to live with ourselves and we’ve got to turn the page quickly. Nothing is going to be given to us these next eight games. We’re going to eat what we earn. That’s the way that it is.”

Colorado’s Saturday night is against Oregon State at 6:30 P.M. on Pac-12 Network.